Oct 27th: Remembering Who We Are, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Remembering Who We Are with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: A Braver Way A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 5.5, Matthew 23.11, 2 Corinthians 5.
Join us this Sunday, either online or in-person, to hear a powerful message about promoting healing, peace, and the common good. Let’s come together to explore how we can be a force for tenderness and mercy in this world.
Transcript:
November 5 feels like one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime. I mean, what a gift it is to live in a democracy. Voting is the most powerful non violent change agent we have in a democratic society. So please vote. Encourage others to vote. Vote as your conscience leads you, one of the things I value most about being Presbyterian is our belief that God alone is the Lord of your conscience. What I say in a sermon is led by my own conscience and discernment of where God is leading me and you, led by your conscience, have every right to disagree with me. My goal is never agreement, but an invitation into deeper discernment about what it means to be followers of Jesus, committed to his spacious and radical love in such a time as this. Now, I know some of you may be thinking, What does voting have to do with our faith? Please, please keep politics out of the pulpit. You know, it’s true, I have no right, and it’s not my job to tell you who to vote for. Partisan politics has no place in the pulpit or in the church, but partisan neutrality is not the same as moral neutrality. Voting is not separate from your faith. Voting is an expression of your faith. It’s an act of love. It’s been said that voting is a kind of, kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children. I mean, for people of faith, voting is an act of spiritual and moral discernment, deciding the values that will, that will shape our common life together. There are leaders in every political party that that exercise power in corrupt ways, because leadership was never meant to be about power from a Christian perspective, leadership is about sacrifice and service, and that’s why Christian nationalism is so dangerous. Beware of any Christian movement that acts as though the world is full of enemies to be dominated and destroyed, rather than full of neighbors to be loved. Beware of any Christian movement that demands the government be an instrument of God’s wrath rather than a source of God’s mercy, generosity, compassion. Christians are called to serve, not dominate. Christian nationalism keeps telling Christians to take up their sword and make our nation into their version of Christianity by any means necessary. Jesus called us to put down our swords, take up our crosses and be like him, serving the world through grace, humility, compassion, self, sacrificial, love. Jesus said that the greatest among you are those willing to be a servant, not just for some, but servant of all, as we consider our vote up and down the ballot, followers of Jesus, don’t ask, who will best serve my interests, but who will best serve the common good. Who will best help us love our neighbors, who will shape public policy that will, that will feed the hungry, care for the poor, welcome the stranger, care for the least of these, who will best help us heal what divides us? Who will help us be peacemakers and love our enemies, who will shape public policy that cares for God’s holy earth. It’s correct. It’s not my place to tell you who to vote for, but partisan neutrality is not the same thing as moral neutrality. It is my job to remind you that Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God, and that the best way to love God is to love your neighbor as yourself. Voting is an expression of. Faith, it’s a way of demonstrating love for your neighbor. Now, the lawyer asked Jesus, well, who is my neighbor? And Jesus responded, the one in need of your mercy. Recently, Pope Francis said, in this time of harshness and hostility, what we need is a revolution of tenderness and mercy. Tenderness and mercy, he said, are chosen by the strongest among you. What if that was our lens? How might our vote usher in a revolution of tenderness and mercy? I mean, Jesus said, Blessed are the meek and gentle of heart, for they will inherit the earth, meek, gentle of heart. I picture Tom Hanks in the movie a league of your own, where he says, are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball. You can’t be soft if we’re going to win. But Jesus said, Blessed are the meek and gentle of heart. That actually seems a little naive and out of place given the current political climate. Now, when we think of the word meek in our culture, we think of someone who’s timid and allows themselves to be a doormat. When we think of someone who’s who’s gentle of heart, we think of someone who’s who’s fragile that you have to take care of. That’s the wisdom of our culture, and Jesus certainly isn’t calling us to be timid and fragile. So what is the wisdom of Jesus? The Greek word pro ates, translated as meek or gentle of heart, was actually used in the time of Jesus to describe the opposite of unbridled anger, harshness, brutality. It was a word that it was actually used to describe a person of authority and power who refused to use their power and privilege to crush or harm another person. Now, example would be a king who has the authority and power to harshly punish, and instead chooses to use that power to forgive, the king who chooses to heal instead of hurt, who chooses reconciliation instead of revenge. In the time of Jesus, was considered meek and gentle of heart. Now in our culture, this is viewed as weakness, according to the wisdom of Jesus, it’s actually what true strength looked like. Now think of Jesus hanging from the cross. He couldn’t be any more vulnerable and weak. I mean, they laughed at him. They spit at him, they they made fun of him, saying, now some king you are, look at you. Now, look how weak you are. And Jesus looked in the eyes of those who nailed the nails in his hands, and he said, Father, forgive them. Jesus, in His last breath, used his power to forgive. I can’t think of a more powerful expression of love than that. In this world of ours that that defines power by control and domination, we actually dare to trust it’s that kind of vulnerable love revealed in Jesus, that kind of meekness, that kind of gentleness of heart that is stronger than even the worst kind of evil. L R nost wrote, preserving a gentle spirit in a heartless world takes extraordinary courage, determination, resilience. Do not underestimate the power of gentleness, because gentleness is strength wrapped in peace and therein lies the power. To change the world.
Blessed are the meek and gentle of heart in a hostile and heartless world. Think of this perspective in terms of voting. How do we exercise the power and the privilege of our vote not to serve ourselves or to harm others, but as a way to foster healing, promote peace, lift up the most vulnerable. The late Congressman John Lewis was was often described by his colleagues as as a gentle giant, even though he was short in stature, John Lewis channeled his outrage, his outrage Over racial injustice, into a lifetime of public service. He never backed down. He never backed away from from getting into what he called good trouble, necessary trouble, refusing to rest until the dignity and worth of every human being was recognized in the 1960s George Wallace used demonizing and dehumanizing language of rage and hate to become Alabama’s governor, and he led the Celts efforts against racial integration, vowing segregation forever. Now, Wallace used his power to try to maintain power and crush his enemies. And how Wallace exercised power created a climate of violence, leading to John Lewis having his skull fractured by a police baton as he led a peaceful march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Toward the end of George Wallace’s life, he actually sought the forgiveness of John Lewis. And John Lewis said, when I when I met George Wallace, I had to forgive him, because to do otherwise to hate him would only perpetuate the evil we sought to destroy. John Lewis said, If I refused to forgive and chose to hate, I would become the monster I’ve devoted my entire life to overcoming. Blessed are the meek and gentle in heart in a hostile and heartless world. Friends care, deeply care deeply. Be outraged. Get into good trouble, necessary trouble. But as it says in Proverbs, 423, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Now more than ever, it is so important to remember that you are a beloved child of God. You are made in the image of God’s own goodness. It is so important to remember the goodness of who you are at your core, at a time when the ugliness of inhumanity is on full display, the gift we can offer right now is the very best of our humanity in these next few days leading up to the election and beyond, I really encourage you to find a few moments to step away from the devices the news cycles other people’s opinions, until you can hear that still, that still small voice within and I really encourage you in the next few days to each and every morning, ask yourself the following questions, what role do I want to play in this moment in history? Who do I want to be? How can I use my power and my privilege in service of healing this broken world? God, what do I need to be brave with my life? How can I stand up for what is right and what is just without dehumanizing or demonizing others, without losing sight of my own goodness, friends, we don’t simply cast our vote by filling out our ballot. We vote for the world we dream of for ourselves and for our children. We vote for that world every single day with our hearts, our voices, our hands, our feet, may our votes usher in a revolution of tenderness and mercy in this hostile and heartless world. May it be so? I.
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